Follow State Legislatures with the New Open States iOS App

This week the Sunlight Foundation launched its Open States iPhone and iPad app that puts the inner-workings of state legislatures in the palm of your hand. The free mobile app provides up to the minute information on your state representative's profile, legislation being considered, voting records, campaign finance totals and much more. The app launches with legislative data from all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. For more information, go here. And yes, Maryland is included. So, knock yourself out.

The Open States app allows you to:
Identify your state representatives, find their contact information and explore district geography with Google Maps.

See voting records, bill sponsorships, committee assignments and campaign finance information for all elected representatives.

Follow any state bill on its way to becoming a law, from introduction through committee hearings, floor votes, passage and signing by the governor.

Read the latest policy news affecting your state from Stateline.org, an online publication of the Pew Center on the States.

Schedules and maps of the state house, in the few states that publicize this information

Sunlight Labs developed the app with support from the Minnesota Historical Society, and it runs on Sunlight Labs’ Open States API. Supported in part by the work of volunteers, the Open States Project collects and scrapes legislative data from state legislatures across the country and makes it available online in a unified, reliable, developer-friendly format. Learn more online at the Sunlight Labs blog, start contributing to the project here or follow @openstates on twitter for the latest news. Next steps include working on an Android version, building out bill text search, creating a public website for the data and continuing to adapt to changes in each legislature.

Thanks to the people at the Sunlight Foundation and all its supporters for helping citizens to shine a light on dark corners of the Maryland legislature.